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The corporate cabal behind a new trade agreement including Cargill, Pfizer, Nike and WalMart, has done an exceptional job of maintaining an almost total lack of transparency as they literally design the future we will all inhabit.

Sends signal to controversial paper giants APP and APRIL

SAN FRANCISCO—Disney today announced a significant new paper policy that applies to the company’s extensive operations and those of its licensees, and means they will be eliminating paper connected to the destruction of endangered forests and animals.

An imperiled orangutan was rescued from a small patch of the Tripa peat swamp rainforest in Sumatra last month, in an effort to save this large adult male from starvation. But experts fear he could be among the last of his kind in what was once prime habitat for these graceful, shy great apes.

The EPA's analysis looked at the loss of rainforest and the draining of peatlands as the big net loss for palm-oil based biodiesel, which keeps the fuel from being classed as renewable under the RFS. However one group - the Rainforest Action Network - claims that EPA hasn't gone far enough. Scientific and environmental groups summarized their comments to EPA's proposed finding and while they agreed with EPA's conclusion, they argue that EPA's analysis actually underestimates the greenhouse gas emissions of palm oil.

Scientific and environmental groups announced that they will submit comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to EPA’s proposed finding that palm oil should not qualify for inclusion in the EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) this morning. While the organizations, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Wildlife Federation, agreed with the EPA’s conclusion not to include palm oil, they argued that EPA’s analysis actually underestimates the greenhouse gas emissions of palm oil

A consortium of environmental groups said that, while they agreed with the findings, the EPA underestimated the emissions levels. They said they believe palm oil has serious environmental consequences.

"The emissions of palm oil based biofuels substantially exceed the emissions from conventional petroleum diesel," Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.

Based on its analysis, the EPA ruled that biofuels made with palm oil do not meet the greenhouse gas requirements of the US renewable fuels mandate. The 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard requires that biofuels reduce net greenhouse gas emissions at least 20% compared to conventional gasoline and diesel over their lifecycle. Safeguards to protect natural ecosystems from biofuel crop production were also included.

ALEC, along with palm oil producers in Indonesia and Malaysia, are pushing back hard, claiming EPA's conclusion is based on faulty data.

It is commonly known among conservation biologists that biodiversity -- or the totality and variability of genes, species and ecosystems of a region -- is integral for optimum health and sustainability of a region. Though it is a term that is arguably clunkier than "sustainability" -- biodiversity is slowly becoming a topic of interest within the sphere of sourcing and design.